Thursday, November 11, 2010

Badfinger

Badfinger was a rock band formed in Swansea, Wales in the early 1960s and was one of the earliest representatives of the power pop genre. During the early 1970s the band was tagged as the heir apparent to The Beatles, partly because of their close working relationship with the 'Fab Four' and partly because of their similar sound. However, Badfinger fell victim to some of the worst elements of the music industry, resulting in its two principal singers and songwriters committing suicide in 1975 and 1983.

The Iveys

Badfinger originated with a band out of Swansea, South Wales in 1961 called The Panthers. The Panthers' featured lineup contained Pete Ham (lead guitar), Ron Griffiths (bass guitar), Roy Anderson (drums), and David 'Dai' Jenkins (guitar). After a handful of moniker changes, in 1964 they settled on The Iveys, named after a street called Ivey Place in Swansea.

By March 1965, Mike Gibbins had joined as the drummer and the band graduated to backing locally such UK national groups as the Spencer Davis Group, The Who, The Moody Blues and The Yardbirds. By June 1966, the band had been taken on by a manager named Bill Collins, who was renting a home at 7 Park Avenue, Golders Green, London, where the whole band moved in with another UK act called The Mojos. The group performed briefly as a backing band for David Garrick ("Dear Mrs. Applebee") but continued to perform as themselves across the UK throughout the rest of the decade. In 1967, Jenkins was asked to leave the group due to a lack of seriousness. and he was replaced by a Liverpudlian guitarist Tom Evans of Them Calderstones, the band's first non-Welsh member.

As a well-received stage act on the London circuit, performing a wide range of covers from Motown, blues, soul to Top 40, psychedelic pop, and Beatles, The Iveys consistently garnered interest from record labels. Ray Davies of The Kinks auditioned to produce them by recording three of their songs at a demo studio in London. However, it was not until Mal Evans (the longtime "roadie" for The Beatles and an employee of their Apple Records label) took up their cause, that they were finally signed to a label -- Apple -- on 23 July 1968, thus becoming the first recording artists The Beatles had signed. Griffiths later said in a Mojo magazine interview: "The ultimate goal was to get a recording contract, but to get one from Apple was really exciting. Yet we were still living at Golders Green, getting £8 a week each." Mal Evans had pushed several demo tapes of the group to each of the individual Beatles and got approval for signing them from Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and John Lennon, who couldn't believe they were recorded on a sound-on-sound 2-track tape recorder. Each of The Iveys was also signed to Apple Corps' Apple Publishing.

The Iveys released their first single worldwide, "Maybe Tomorrow" (a Tom Evans song), in late 1968. It reached the Top Ten in a number of European countries and Japan, but only rated #67 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and failed to chart in the UK. Another Evans composition, "Storm in a Teacup", was included in an Apple EP produced to promote Walls Ice Cream, along with songs by other original Apple artists James Taylor, Mary Hopkin and Jackie Lomax.

Due to the chart success of "Maybe Tomorrow" in Europe and Japan, a follow-up Iveys single was released in July of 1969, "Dear Angie" (a Griffiths song), but only in those markets. The Iveys album, entitled Maybe Tomorrow, was issued only in Italy, Germany and Japan in 1969. Plans to release in the UK and U.S. were halted for reasons never made entirely clear by Apple. The most prominent rumor is that Apple Corps president Allen Klein personally stopped the releases due to his desire to re-organize the label and solidify his control over it.

McCartney gave The Iveys a boost when he offered them the chance to record and release "Come And Get It," a song he had written for the soundtrack of the film The Magic Christian. McCartney went on to produce the song for the band, as well as the group's original compositions of "Carry On Till Tomorrow" (commissioned as the main title theme) and "Rock Of All Ages." These three tracks would appear both in the film and soundtrack album. Ron Griffiths became ill midway during the sessions, and Tom Evans had to play bass on "Rock Of All Ages."

Griffiths left the group shortly after these sessions. Reportedly, the primary reason was because he was the only married occupant of the communal band home, now raising a child there, and this created some friction, mainly between his wife, Evans and manager Collins. Griffiths officially was out of the picture by the beginning of November 1969.

Badfinger: The Apple years

In October 1969, while the release of "Come and Get It" was pending, the band and Apple Records agreed that a name change was critical. "The Iveys" were still sometimes confused with "The Ivy League", and the name was considered too trite for the current music scene. After much debate, the group changed their name to Badfinger. Other suggestions had included: "The Glass Onion," "The Prix", and "The Cagneys" from John Lennon, and "Home" by Paul McCartney.

The name Badfinger was suggested by Apple's Neil Aspinall as a reference to "Bad Finger Boogie," an early working title of Lennon/McCartney's "With a Little Help from My Friends", alleged by Neil Aspinall that Lennon had composed the melody on a piano using his middle finger, after having hurt his forefinger. Later quotes from Paul McCartney suggest it was he who composed the melody.

For over a month the group unsuccessfully auditioned bass guitarists to replace Ron Griffiths. With the release date of "Come and Get It" fast approaching, Badfinger finally hired Liverpudlian guitarist Joey Molland (previously with Gary Walker & The Rain, The Masterminds, and The Fruit-Eating Bears) at the last minute, which required Evans to shift to bass.

"Come and Get It" was released in December 1969 in the U.K. and January 1970 in the U.S. It reached the Top 10 throughout the world, including #3 in the U.S. Billboard charts. The track was also featured in The Magic Christian film. For the group's initial LP release, their three soundtrack songs were remixed and combined with some older Iveys tracks (including seven songs from the rare Maybe Tomorrow album). This was released as Magic Christian Music. The album peaked at #55 on the Billboard album charts in the U.S.

New Badfinger recording sessions commenced in March 1970 with Mal Evans producing. Two songs were completed and submitted for the next single, including "No Matter What." but it was rejected by Apple. Geoff Emerick then took over as producer; completing the album by late July 1970. No Dice was released in the U.S. in late 1970. It peaked at #28 on the Billboard charts. The newly re-mixed "No Matter What," was released as a single and it peaked at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 while achieving another across-the-board worldwide Top Ten. Another track from No Dice, "Without You", as covered by Harry Nilsson, became an international hit in early 1972, reaching the Billboard #1 slot. The composition was eventually covered by hundreds of artists and has since become an all-time ballad "standard" in the music business.

While in America in April 1970, scouting prospects for a tour, Bill Collins was introduced to New York businessman Stan Polley. Polley eventually signed the group to a business management contract in November 1970. Although Polley's professional reputation was touted at the time, his dubious financial practices would only later become known to the group and helped lead to their downfall.

Badfinger toured America for three months in late 1970 and were generally received well, although the group complained of constant comparison to The Beatles. For example, in his rave review of No Dice in 1970, Mike Saunders, a critic for Rolling Stone opined that "it's as if John, Paul, George, and Ringo had been reincarnated as Joey, Pete, Tom, and Mike of Badfinger." Media comparisons between Badfinger and The Beatles would continue throughout Badfinger's career.

During this time, various members of Badfinger also recorded on sessions for fellow Apple Records labelmates, most notably playing acoustic guitars on tracks from George Harrison's "All Things Must Pass" and providing backing vocals on Ringo Starr's single "It Don't Come Easy." Evans and Molland performed on John Lennon's album Imagine, and all four members of the band appeared as backup musicians throughout George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh in August 1971, with Ham dueting with George Harrison on "Here Comes the Sun."

Badfinger first started recording its third album with Geoff Emerick as producer; however the album was rejected by Apple. George Harrison took over as producer in spring of 1971. Harrison later pulled out of the project due to his Bangladesh commitments and the album was then completed by Todd Rundgren. Straight Up was released in the U.S. in December 1971 and spawned two successful singles: "Day After Day" (Billboard #4) and "Baby Blue" (#14). The album reached #31. It included some uncredited special guest appearances from George Harrison, Leon Russell and Klaus Voormann.

By 1972, the group was under contract to release only one more album with Apple Records. Despite Badfinger's success, Apple was facing troubled times overall and its operations were dwindling down. Label president Allen Klein informed Badfinger's management that the label would not be as generous regarding a new contract. Although business manager Polley was more openly under a cloak of suspicion for mis-management of finances by other clients of his, such as Lou Christie and music arranger Charlie Calello (one series of allegations published in the New York Times representing him as a one-time "bagman" for the Mafia), the Badfinger members and Collins continued to follow Polley's lead. There was never a clear indication by any member or Collins they knew much of the scandals surrounding Polley at that time.

Badfinger's fourth and last album for Apple, Ass, had begun as far back as early 1972 and would continue at five recording studios over the next year. Rundgren, who was originally hired to produce, quit in a financial dispute during the first week; the band then produced itself, but Apple rejected that version of the album. Finally, Badfinger hired Chris Thomas to co-produce and complete the album. During the recording of Ass, Polley negotiated a deal with Warner Brothers Records that required an album from the group every six months over a three year period. The group signed the deal, despite a highly-suspicious Evans, and the Ass front cover featured his idea, a jackass observing a huge carrot being dangled (a metaphor of the band being enticed by the big money Warner Brothers contract.) The Ass release was held up further by Apple because of legal wrangling, as Polley had used the leverage of Molland's unsigned song publishing as a negotiating ploy. Apple listed the writers on the LP as "Badfinger" to try and cover up discrepancies and get the LP to the market. But both Ass and its accompanying single, "Apple of My Eye", failed to reach the Billboard Top 100.

Badfinger: the Warner Brothers years

Six weeks after the Ass sessions were completed, Badfinger entered the studio to begin recording material for their first Warner Brothers release titled Badfinger (the intended title, For Love Or Money, was excluded from the album pressings). Ass and Badfinger were released almost simultaneously and the accompanying singles from Badfinger, "Love Is Easy" (UK) and "I Miss You" (U.S.), were unsuccessful. Badfinger did manage to retain some U.S. fan support as a result of several American tours. One concert at the Cleveland Agora on March 4, 1974 was recorded on 16-track tape for a possible live album release, although the performance was deemed unsatisfactory at the time.

Following the American tours, Badfinger recorded Wish You Were Here at the Caribou Ranch recording studio in Colorado and AIR Studios in London. The album was extremely well-received by Rolling Stone and other periodicals upon its release in October 1974.

However, internal friction centering on band management, money and group leadership had been growing within Badfinger. Joey Molland's wife, Kathie, had been taking a more assertive role in the band's politics, which did not endear her to the rest of the group, particularly Ham. Just before the band began rehearsals for an October 1974 United Kingdom tour, Ham suddenly quit the band during a management meeting, stating that he didn't want to belong to a band managed by Kathie Molland. He was replaced by guitarist/keyboardist Bob Jackson. During Ham's three-week hiatus from the group, Polley began shopping Ham as a solo act. However, just before the tour began, Ham rejoined the group after he was pressured by Warner Brothers' position that it would have little to no interest in promoting Badfinger if Ham was gone. Jackson remained as full-time keyboardist, making the band a quintet. After the United Kingdom tour, the friction within the group continued. After some unsuccessful power plays by Molland to keep Ham out of the band, Molland quit of his own accord to pursue a solo career.

Over the previous year, Warner Brothers' publishing arm had become increasingly troubled by a lack of communication from Stan Polley regarding the status of an escrow account of advance funds. Per their contract, Polley was to put in safe-keeping $100,000 in a mutually-accessible account that both Warner Publishing and the group could potentially access. But Polley had not revealed the account's whereabouts to Warners Publishing, and he reportedly ignored warnings about this. Unbeknownst to the band, threats of litigation had been going on behind the scenes.

With Molland gone and an increasingly unstable situation overall, Polley's next ploy was to press the band to go back into Apple Recording Studios to record its third album under the Warner contract, instead of a U.S. support tour. Within two weeks, tracks were cut for an album entitled Head First, and rough mixes were distributed to the musicians and Warner Brothers Records in America. Before the album was formally accepted by Warners Records, Warners Publishing had already filed a lawsuit against Stan Polley and Badfinger on December 10, 1974 in L.A. Superior Court. Polley had hoped submitting the Head First tapes would secure at least one more album advance prior to the litigation, but Warner Brothers refused to accept the tapes and never paid for the sessions. The legal action led to Warners Records stopping the promotion of Wish You Were Here and they stopped distribution of Wish You Were Here worldwide, thus completely halting Badfinger's career.

A suicide, a reunion, and another suicide

Badfinger spent the early months of 1975 trying to figure out how to proceed with the unclear legal situation at hand, including the one withdrawn album and the one rejected album. Years earlier, Polley had established Badfinger Enterprises, Inc., which signed the members to various contracts that dictated that receipts of touring, recording, publishing and even songwriter performance royalties would go into holding companies controlled by Polley. This led to a salary arrangement for the group, which various members had at times complained was inadequate compared to their gross earnings. But by April 1975, salaries were no longer arriving and panic set in, especially for Pete Ham, who had recently acquired a house and whose girlfriend was expecting a child that May.

According to their newest member, Bob Jackson, booking agents and prospective managers routinely turned the band away because of their restrictive contracts with Polley and impending legal actions. Ham tried many times to contact Polley by telephone during the early months of 1975, and was never able to reach him.A photo of Pete Ham, singer, guitarist and keyboard player of Badfinger, who hanged himself in his garage on 24 April 1975

On 24 April 1975, Ham hanged himself in his garage studio in Surrey. His suicide note, addressed to his girlfriend and her son, seemed to blame Polley for much of his internal despair and he cited his lost ability to cope with his disappointments in life. The note read: "Anne, I love you. Blair, I love you. I will not be allowed to love and trust everybody. This is better. Pete. P.S. Stan Polley is a soulless bastard. I will take him with me." Ham had shown a growing mental illness over the past months as he burned cigarettes out on his hands and arms. Ham's daughter Petera was born a month after his death.

After Ham's death, Badfinger dissolved. Late in 1975, Evans and Jackson helped establish a group called The Dodgers. The group released three UK 45's on Island Records in 1976. "Don't Let Me Be Wrong" was the only U.S. release, but it failed to chart. Subsequently, the management of the band fired Evans for insubordination and ordered all his performances deleted from the group's album recordings that later was released as Love On The Rebound. Molland had started a band in 1975 with Mark Clarke (Colosseum) and Jerry Shirley (Humble Pie) called Natural Gas. The group performed a few gigs as an opening act for Peter Frampton in 1976. They released a self-titled album and three singles, but none managed to chart. Gibbins performed session drumming for various Welsh acts, including Bonnie Tyler on her international hit "It's A Heartache," which reached #3 on the U.S. charts.

By 1977, both Molland and Evans were out of the music business; Molland occasionally laid carpet while Evans briefly worked insulating pipes. Molland describes his dire economic circumstances as follows: "Thank God I had guitars and I was able to sell some of that stuff. We were flat broke, and that's happened to me three times, where my wife and I have had to sell off everything and go and stay with her parents or do whatever. I installed carpeting for a while in Los Angeles and stuff like that. You do what you've got to do to survive."

Later in 1977, U.S.-based drummer Kenny Harck and guitarist Joe Tansin recruited Molland to start a new band. When they needed a bass player, Molland suggested Evans, who joined after a visit to California in 1978. Suggestions from record companies led to the decision to rename the new band as Badfinger. Their “comeback” album Airwaves was released in 1979. Harck was fired from the band during the sessions and Tansin left the band immediately after the album was completed.

To tour promoting the album, Molland and Evans recruited Tony Kaye (Yes) on keyboards and Peter Clarke (Stealers Wheel) on drums. The single "Love is Gonna Come At Last" from Airwaves reached #69 on the Billboard charts. The new Badfinger then recorded and released a second album, Say No More in 1981, with Glenn Sherba added on second guitar and Richard Bryans (Aviary) replacing Clarke on drums. This LP was distributed by Atlantic on the Radio Records label. The initial single, "Hold On," reached #56 on the Billboard charts. Ultimately, Evans and Molland split acrimoniously in 1981.

During 1982 and 1983, Molland and Evans then operated what turned out to be rival touring bands, both using the name Badfinger, which caused serious conflict in their relationship. At certain stages, Evans teamed with pre-1975 Badfinger members Bob Jackson, Mike Gibbins, guitarist Adam Allen, guitarist Reed Kailing (The Grass Roots), guitarist Donnie Dacus (Chicago), post-1975 Badfinger members Tony Kaye, guitarist Glenn Sherba and drummer Lenny Campanaro. For a few of his Badfinger band gigs, Molland teamed with post-1975 member Joe Tansin.

In 1982, Evans and Jackson signed a management contract with a Milwaukee businessman John Cass, which led to a disastrous tour. Both were later sued (Evans for U.S. $5 million) when they denied any responsibilities of the contract, due to their stance that management obligations had not been performed. Early in 1983, Evans and Jackson, with assistance from new member Al Wodtke (Kyx, Crow), completed four demos in Minneapolis, Minnesota under contractual obligations to former David Bowie/Stevie Wonder manager Don Powell. These demos included Jackson's "I Won't Forget You," a tribute to deceased band member Pete Ham. These were briefly shopped but failed to generate strong interest.

On November 19, 1983, Evans and Molland had an extensive heated argument on the telephone regarding past Badfinger income still in escrow from the Apple era, and the "Without You" songwriting royalties Evans was now receiving, which Molland, former manager Bill Collins and Gibbins all wanted a share in. Following this argument, Evans hanged himself in the garden at his home.

In 1984, Molland, Gibbins and Jackson reunited as Badfinger, along with Al Wodtke and Randy Anderson(Jesse Brady) of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and played thirty-one dates as part of a 20th Anniversary of British Invasion acts, which included Gerry & The Pacemakers, The Troggs, Billy J. Kramer and Hermans Hermits.

In 1986, Molland and Gibbins reformed another touring band called Badfinger playing very sporadic dates, until Gibbins left for good in 1990.

Subsequent Iveys and Badfinger releases and activities

The first CD collection of Badfinger, entitled Shine On and covering the two Warner Brothers albums, was released in the UK in 1989. In 1990, Rhino Records released another Warner Brothers-era compilation, entitled The Best of Badfinger, Vol. 2, which also included material from both Airwaves and the previously-unreleased Head First.

A greatest hits collection covering Badfinger's four albums on Apple, entitled Come And Get It: The Best Of Badfinger, was released in 1995 by EMI/Apple/Capitol. This release notably was the first since 1973's Ass to have assigned to it a standard Apple catalogue number, SAPCOR 28. A more comprehensive collection, which included tracks from Apple and Warner Brothers, called The Very Best Of Badfinger, was released in 2000.

In 1990 a CD was released by Rykodisc called Day After Day: Live. It was billed as a Badfinger live recording performed from 1974 and received mixed critical reactions. The CD had very substantial re-recording and a rearranged track order by the album's producer Joey Molland. The CD eventually sparked a lawsuit filed by Molland, after the band's accounting firm collecting for the 1985 court-order settlement had re-adjusted against Molland's Apple royalty income by deducting away the percentage amounts of that court order, and then reimbursing those amounts to the other Badfinger parties. As it was, Molland had failed to execute in the Rykodisc contract for them to receive any artist royalties contractually, as per the court order, which he maneuvered by advising Rykodisc he would take care of that distribution himself under another company name. Molland subsequently sued the other members and their estates to re-acquire back his expenses and a producer's royalty. He was awarded some money, as the judge stated the facts against Molland were not explored well enough by the opposition lawyers in court to justify a level of severe penalty. He also cited that because both parties claimed the tapes were of a poor quality, Molland had salvaged them to a commercial level, and that justified some reimbursement.

In 1988, Straight Up had ranked as the most-requested CD release among out-of-print albums in a readers poll for Goldmine magazine; it finally made it to CD in 1993. A re-mastered CD version of the album regularly sells for over $100 as does an original sealed vinyl copy.

In 1995, Molland was paid to re-record ten Badfinger songs, including their hits. The recordings have subsequently been distributed with varying packaging, often displaying the original 1970s version of the group with little or no disclaiming information, although Molland is the only member of Badfinger from that time who appears on the recordings. This has led to licensing of hundreds of various CDs which have severely polluted the market and led to countless protests. SoundScan sales have reflected tens of thousands of sales to an unknowing public and countless protests are posted on iTunes and the internet.

In 1997, a detailed biography on Badfinger written by Dan Matovina came out entitled Without You: The Tragic Story Of Badfinger. It is highly acclaimed for its thoroughness by reviewers and its accuracy by its contributors. A revised edition of the book came out in 2000 with a CD of rare material and interviews.

In 2000, the "rough mix" version of Head First (that had been prepared by Apple engineer Phil McDonald in December 1974) was released on CD, after Warner Brothers refused to make the original master tapes available for remixing, despite their never paying for the original sessions.

In 2002, Mike Gibbins released a two-disk set of an October 19, 1982 Badfinger performance in Indiana made on a consumer cassette recorder, initially inaccurately entitled Live 83 — DBA-BFR. The band at that time consisted of Evans, Gibbins, Jackson, Reed Kailing and Donnie Dacus.

In 2003 and 2006, two separate CDs of related Apple Publishing music, entitled 94 Baker Street and An Apple A Day, were released. These CDs contain nine songs by pre-Badfinger band, The Iveys.

In 2008, another CD of Apple Publishing related songs, Treacle Toffee, was released which included two more Iveys demos.

Post-Badfinger solo activities

Since 1990, Joey Molland has occasionally performed in the United States as "Badfinger" or "Badfinger featuring Joey Molland". He has released three solo albums, After The Pearl (1985), The Pilgrim (1992) and This Way Up (2001). He also released a CD collection of demos called Basil (1998) on his own label Independent Artists. Kathie Molland, the subject of some controversy for the band, died in 24 March 2009.

In 1995, Bob Jackson joined The Fortunes, an English group most successful in the 1960s. Jackson sings lead as they perform three Badfinger songs consistently in the set.

In both 1997 and 1999, posthumous collections of Pete Ham home recordings were released 7 Park Avenue and Golders Green. In 1995, a posthumous Tom Evans CD was released, Over You: The Final Tracks, which was produced by friend and post-Badfinger songwriting partner, Rod Roach.

In 1996, Mike Gibbins contributed two songs on the compilation album Young Savage Florida. In 1997, Gibbins released his first solo album on Forbidden Records entitled A Place In Time. Between 2000-2003, he released three more solo albums on (More Annoying Songs, Archeology, and In The Meantime) on his own label, Exile Music. Gibbins died in his sleep at his home in Oviedo, Florida on October 4, 2005. He was 56.

In May 2006, A Badfinger convention took place in Swansea, Wales featuring a performance by Bob Jackson. it brought together Jackson, Griffiths, and surviving members of the Ham, Evans and Gibbins families. On 1 January 2008, the BBC Wales radio station broadcast an hour-long documentary about Badfinger.

Personnel

Membership of The Iveys/Badfinger underwent numerous personnel changes and, at the end, none of the original members of The Iveys were still in Badfinger.